Pat Conroy

The Water is Wide

Andrew John Kinney

I am going to be the curmudgeon and admit I do not like Pat Conroy's writing style very much. That said, his story of teaching on Daufuskie Island (which he calls Yamacraw in the book) is compelling despite his less than stellar prose, and it is a historical document, in a way. When I first laid eyes on Daufuskie, walking the beach of Hilton Head with my then-girlfriend in the 1980's, the black families whose ancestors had lived there since the 1860's still owned the place, though the word was abroad that the black families would soon sell to developers. So less than twenty years after Conroy taught there, the insular life of the Daufuskie people as a community was at an end; they have been displaced by those wealthy enough to live a cloistered existence on the island in comfort. Conroy's tenure teaching on Daufuskie was during the beginnings of desegregation, which was fought tooth and nail in most parts of the South, so advocating on behalf of black children was a courageous, though poorly executed (as the book records), path for Conroy to take. I grew up in an area of the south where the KKK was still active; they occasionally put flyers in our mailbox in the early '70's warning of the dual threats of miscegenation and Jews, so what Conroy did in South Carolina in 1969 was not without personal risk. I must note, however, that Conroy can be a bit self-aggrandizing in his account, which was a bit off-putting at times.

From the standpoint of readability, and maintaining the readers interest, I feel the first 100 pages were a bit of a struggle, which is why I put it aside for months to read other books, but after those first hundred pages the story seemed to pick up steam, or perhaps Conroy was simply getting better as a writer - The Water is Wide was only his second book, after all. In all, this is a story worth reading if you are at all interested in education, race relations in the south, or in the history of the Low Country area of South Carolina and Georgia.

Abigail F

True rating: 2/5

As someone who spent some time near the island this story is based on, I really wanted to like this book. The locals in the area love Pat Conroy, love/hate this story, and kept telling me if I read any piece of local literature, this was the book to read. 

I was left utterly disappointed. 

The book keeps the two stars because it is based on a true story involving true horrific and unjust events to a group of marginalized people during an overtly racist and prejudiced time. However, the writing style isn't as strong as I suspected (later learning he wrote this in his mid twenties, this makes more sense), the time line of events jumps around, not always overly clearly, and the story lost momentum. It started off with great interest, to learn about the conditions of the island and the treatment of the residents. However the shock value wears off and does the desire to continue reading, up unitl the very end when Conroy is fighting against the school system. 

If you're interseted in the area, the time, the treatment of African Americans in the rural South, this book can provide good first hand information. However, if you're looking for an interesting memoir with great revelations that keeps you turning pages, I suggest looking elsewhere.

The Water is Wide

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